Best day of the week to submit a resume/coverletter? Also salary questions.

I have read that one should wait until Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday at ~11AM or so to submit a resume and/or cover letter. What is your opinion on the best day of the week and time of the day to submit? What would be some day/time no-no's? Is it more important to time the submission properly or to try to ensure one's application is one of the first to hit HR's desk?

Also, if I company gives a salary range but still asks for your salary preference, in relation to their range what number(s) do you recommend for someone just entering the field?

I think you're over-thinking the best timing to submit. The best time to submit is before the requisition closes and/or before the hiring manager has identified a most likely candidate. If you submit at 5:00 PM the day previous or 8:00 AM that day, it may wait to be reviewed until that employee has had their coffee and dealt with any urgent issues, but the actual submission time is not that critical. The strength of the resume is more important by far.

If you honestly have no idea what you'd like to be paid, shoot for something above the upper half of the scale, but not towards the top. Definitely aim a little high and be willing to negotiate down, so build that into your estimate. It's OK to high-ball a little as long as it's not outrageously high.

As it is for me (and I guess it might be the same in other companies) I do not receive any CV directly. All job applications in our company go to a central place, the CV's will be printed out and put into a folder. I will get this folder once week with all job applications I am invloved with hiring. That means I don't even see the time when they have been submitted.

The only important thing is: submit the CV before the deadline (we will usually give one more day internally than what is stated on the job advertisment). If you submit too late your CV wont be in the folder and if it is not in the folder I will not get to see it and have no chance to make up my mind if I should make up an interview appointment. I guess most organizations will have a similar procedure.

I heard some striking research recently that something like 70% of all jobs are filled by networking, and that 99% of all folks in the job market have taken advantage of this to land a job in their past.

The researcher used this to question the very concept of a job "market" -- if positions are really just filled through relationships.

My suggestion would be this -- leverage your network to find someone who you know who knows someone inside the company you're wanting to apply for, and work that connection to have your resume walked in. Statistically, this appears to be the best strategy. If you can't find a way to connect the dots, the probability of landing the job is very small.

Relax. Breathe. You will find in today's world there are many hoops a resume must go through before it get to "interview that person" stage. I have heard back from resumes as late as 6 months from application. Here are some basic rules:

Apply for the job when you see the job. Don't wait for some arbitrary "Lifehacker recommends" timeframe. Much like romance, you don't wait for the "right time". This is why your resume should already be ready for submission. You should only need to slightly tweak it to adjust for the advertised position.

If you have a personal connection at the place you applied to through friendship or networking it is ok to ping them ONCE a week to two weeks after initial submission. Do not ping them more frequently. Keep all additional pings to a once-every-two-week timeframe after that. You want to remind them you are still interested without annoying them.

If you have no personal connection to the submission then you are firing blind. Do not contact them to follow up unless you have a personal connection as mentioned above OR they have contacted you back personally to discuss. They will be in contact when they want to be and annoying a stranger or stalking the Hiring Manager won't put your candidacy in a positive light.

When corresponding with your personal connections it is always fine to use a email. When corresponding with a hiring authority or member of their process it is always nice to send a hand written card the first time AFTER AN INTERVIEW if you have their proper name and work mailing address. Barring that you can correspond by email. Once again, you don't contact and annoy them, they contact and schedule with you.

Summary: If you have not yet interviewed and you have no personal/network connection at the company in question, then you should NOT be trying to contact them. Move on and keep searching.

I have read that one should wait until Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday at ~11AM or so to submit a resume and/or cover letter. What is your opinion on the best day of the week and time of the day to submit? What would be some day/time no-no's? Is it more important to time the submission properly or to try to ensure one's application is one of the first to hit HR's desk?

Also, if I company gives a salary range but still asks for your salary preference, in relation to their range what number(s) do you recommend for someone just entering the field?

1) Time of day doesn't matter2) Day of the week doesn't matter3) First, last, or middle doesn't matter.

The *only* advantage you could have is a contact within the company.

Put yourself in the hiring manager's shoes. Do you really give a shit what day of the week or time of day someone sends a resume?

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In general, you're overthinking this, which makes me think you're too attached to this particular position. Don't put ANY emotional eggs into ANY baskets EVER, because it's a surefire way to find yourself crushed when you don't get the callback/interview/job.

How about if I was contacted to fill out an application (which I've since sent out)? Should I follow up on those?

Was it a generic contact asking you to fill out a application or a truly personalized request? Was the request from one of your own contacts or a random person on the internet? If it's a personal request from one of your contacts then follow up to tell them it was completed and when and then let it go and see what comes of it.

How about if I was contacted to fill out an application (which I've since sent out)? Should I follow up on those?

Was it a generic contact asking you to fill out a application or a truly personalized request? Was the request from one of your own contacts or a random person on the internet? If it's a personal request from one of your contacts then follow up to tell them it was completed and when and then let it go and see what comes of it.

It was a reply from a Monster submission. They emailed me an application PDF to fill out which I then did so promptly. At first I was happy to have a reply/application emailed to me but that was almost two weeks ago and I wonder if I should follow up.

I have two concerns about this specific application as well. One, I filled out both my SSN and signature which makes me worry about ID theft. That being said I researched the company and contact information before applying.

The second is that the application was a non-editable PDF but I was able to convert it to word and fill out most of it in typing then scan/paste in a picture of my signature. I am worried that, while neater to read, it might not be a valid application.

If I have filled out an application for a local business (said application printed from their website as a response to a newspaper ad), should I mail it in to the given snail-mail address (no email or fax), or would it be better/worse/or not matter to drop it off myself if possible? There was no mention of drop offs being forbidden, they just say to mail the application and resume to their physical address.

First - NEVER put your SSN on a app. NEVER. They don't need that until after they hire you. Doing that opens you up to a world of hurt if that was a scammer from Monster. I would keep an eye on your credit history for awhile. You can give them your SSN for background checks after they hire you and make you fill out a formal application. Emailing PII (Personally Identifiable Information) over unsecured channels to unknown people with no idea how it is stored is a very bad idea. Don't do that again. Much like references, tell them you will provide that after an interview and ask them how they store that information.

If the company has no way to take applications online through a portal then I would print and hand deliver that information. It gives you a chance to actually see the business and possibly meet some people. If that is not possible then you can snail mail it.

Have you run your resume through the Boardroom yet? I recommend that. What sort of jobs are you trying to get?

It was a reply from a Monster submission. They emailed me an application PDF to fill out which I then did so promptly. At first I was happy to have a reply/application emailed to me but that was almost two weeks ago and I wonder if I should follow up.

I.e., it was generic.

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I have two concerns about this specific application as well. One, I filled out both my SSN and signature which makes me worry about ID theft. That being said I researched the company and contact information before applying.

If I have filled out an application for a local business (said application printed from their website as a response to a newspaper ad), should I mail it in to the given snail-mail address (no email or fax), or would it be better/worse/or not matter to drop it off myself if possible? There was no mention of drop offs being forbidden, they just say to mail the application and resume to their physical address.

First - NEVER put your SSN on a app. NEVER. They don't need that until after they hire you. Doing that opens you up to a world of hurt if that was a scammer from Monster. I would keep an eye on your credit history for awhile. You can give them your SSN for background checks after they hire you and make you fill out a formal application. Emailing PII (Personally Identifiable Information) over unsecured channels to unknown people with no idea how it is stored is a very bad idea. Don't do that again. Much like references, tell them you will provide that after an interview and ask them how they store that information.

If the company has no way to take applications online through a portal then I would print and hand deliver that information. It gives you a chance to actually see the business and possibly meet some people. If that is not possible then you can snail mail it.

That's what I'll do for this local company, hand delivered. I am just trying to avoid some major snafu or insult by not following protocols I might not be aware of. Some companies explicitly forbid certain venues but I was unsure if the non-explicit is assumed forbidden or allowed.

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Have you run your resume through the Boardroom yet? I recommend that. What sort of jobs are you trying to get?

Aye I ran it through the boardroom already. Information Technology preferably. I am also open to accounting work.

It was for a "consumer report or an investigative consumer report furnished by a consumer reporting agency to render a decision regarding my application". Is it best to just leave it blank at first? What would you consider a good reason to give a company a SSN?

Background checks are all the rage in this post-2008 world aren't they?

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You have your answer right in front of you. Why is this hard?

What Bright Wire posted? Yes I'd feel better about checking out a company in person anyways. Worse thing they do is toss my envelope in the trash after I leave (or maybe in front of me ha).

He meant let go of this job. You submitted and now its time to walk away and find other opportunities. If they want to talk they will call you.

I don't care if they want my SSN to move forward or not. They can not have it until after an interview where we both decide to move forward on hiring me. The same goes for my references. I leave it blank every time. They can ask me personally for that specific information. If they do ask then before I provide it I ask them how they will retain that information and what there policies are for maintaining and accessing that data. If they whine then its not someone who takes the security of your personal information seriously.

He meant let go of this job. You submitted and now its time to walk away and find other opportunities. If they want to talk they will call you.

Ah, there are two jobs I am speaking of. One is a monster contact that had an application emailed to me asking for a SSN. The other is a local company who posted very recently that I have not acted upon yet.

The SSN job was a Monster contact. I am going to call them on the phone tomorrow. If it is a scam I'll learn real quick. If it is not a scam but they are pissed I called oh well. If they like the fact that I followed up then happy day.

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I don't care if they want my SSN to move forward or not. They can not have it until after an interview where we both decide to move forward on hiring me. The same goes for my references. I leave it blank every time. They can ask me personally for that specific information. If they do ask then before I provide it I ask them how they will retain that information and what there policies are for maintaining and accessing that data. If they whine then its not someone who takes the security of your personal information seriously.

Yeah I had a lot of reservations about doing it this one time and I won't again. I'll keep an eye on my credit report, hopefully nothing will crop up.

I doubt it matters when you submit your application.Last year I submitted an application about 10 minutes before the time ran out (at 11:50 pm the last day of submission) and got a call a few days later asking if I was willing to come to an interview.

It is the content that matters, however, if the company will fill the vacancy as soon as a good enough applicant shows up, you are better off to send the application in early of course.

Next time it doesn't feel right ask the BoardRoom. Some may disagree with me, but I have stated my opinion on this matter.

Stop using Monster. No good comes from there. Use Indeed and Linkedn job boards or look directly on a company's website. Run, don't walk, away from Monster.

LinkedIn is good. Indeed is good if you are just wanting a firehose of jobs and are willing to filter at a very high S/N ratio. Since they just aggregate jobs and sometimes aggregate from other aggregators, you see multiples of the same job recycled months later or even over a year.

On the other hand they have new stuff too and that's how I got my job a couple of years ago. Or at least that's how I first saw it. I then did some research on LinkedIn for possible connections and found someone who was willing to introduce me to someone who was willing to help me by putting in a good word and talking to me before I interviewed. She gave me the info on the actual decision maker and some key points she knew they would be looking for, which helped immeasurably.